Turtles All The Way Down
by Trillian Astra
Summary: With Serenity en route to Persephone for the next job, River and Book talk philosophy and problems in the Bible. Firefly does not belong to me, I make not profit from this. Please read and review.


**Fandom**_**Firefly**_**. Set sometime after Objects in Space, but before the movie.**

**Rating****: K**

**Summary****: While **_**Serenity**_** is en route to Persephone for the next job, River and Book talk philosophy and problems in the Bible. **

**Disclaimer****: Nope, **_**Firefly**_** is not mine. The story about the turtles really exists – it's part of Hindu mythology, and is also not mine.**

**This is my very first Firefly story, please read and review.**

**Turtles All The Way Down**

The Captain was being cautious again. It should have taken only a couple of days to get to Persephone from where they had started, but the Alliance had been increasing their patrols and he wanted _Serenity_ under the radar.

So, once again, what ought to have been a short trip became a week-long journey. No-one had anything much to do – the ship was working perfectly, and no-one was hurt or sick, so Kaylee and Simon had no tasks. Wash was still needed on the bridge, of course, but everyone else spent the trip entertaining themselves and each other.

Kaylee and Simon spent most of the trip together, and no-one seemed to see much of them, they were in each other's cabins so much. Zoe was keeping Wash company on the bridge, Jayne alternated between exercising in the cargo bay and staying in his bunk, and the Captain would wander around the ship, making sure everyone was okay, before settling somewhere only to get up and wander again. The Shepherd had his books, and River… well, River was the only one who was never bored. She could always find something to do or think about.

She was sitting curled up in an armchair in the living area, reading Shepherd Book's bible. She had promised not to tear out any more pages after the last time, but he would glance up from his own book every so often just to check on her. After a while, she closed the battered little book and put it down carefully.

"It doesn't make sense."

Shepherd Book looked up from his reading. "What doesn't make sense?"

"The story in your bible. 'bout how the world was created. Doesn't make sense."

"Why not, River?"

"Your God… he created everything, right? A big flash, and everything's just there."

"That's right."

"Where did he come from?"

"I'm sorry, where did who come from?"

"God. If someone had to create the universe, then wouldn't someone have had to create God as well? Who made God?"

"River, no-one "made" God. He always existed."

"No! Doesn't make sense. Thought of that, doesn't work. Doesn't compute."

"River, do you remember I told you about faith? This is one of the things you have to take on faith. It's really very simple."

"But it doesn't work! A being capable of creating a universe needs to be complex, intelligent, complicated. But if god was the first thing that ever existed, he would have to be simple. Simple god couldn't do it. Makes more sense for the 'verse just to exist than for some god to make it."

"River…"

"On Earth-that-was, they had a story. Before they knew 'bout science, they had a story."

"What story, River?"

"They said that Earth-that-was was flat, and was carried through space on the back of a turtle. Giant turtle."

"Ye-es…"

"No interrupting! Story-time. Mustn't interrupt, very rude."

"I'm sorry, River. Carry on, please."  
"So they thought that they were floating around on the back of a giant turtle. Just swimming around in the black. And one day someone asked, if the earth stands on the back of the turtle, what does the turtle stand on? And an old woman said to the person who asked "It's turtles all the way down." D'you know what that means?"

"Why don't you explain it to me, River?"

"What it means is, your book says God made the universe. But for that to be true, someone had to make God. And another someone had to make the first someone, and another someone had to make the second someone… you see now? Bible doesn't make sense. Can't make sense, not like it is now. It's turtles all the way down, Shepherd."

And with that, she got up from her chair and skipped away chattering about turtles. Shepherd Book just sighed and went back to his reading.


End file.
